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Former Italian President and PM Carlo Azeglio Ciampi Dies at 95

Ciampi had helped steer Italy through the dark days of corruption scandals in the 1990s.

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Former Italian president, prime minister and central bank governor Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, has died, the government said, on Friday. He played a key role in guiding the country into the European single currency.

He was 95 and had been ill for some time.

One of Italy’s most respected figures on the international stage, Ciampi helped steer the country through the dark days of corruption scandals in the 1990s and persuaded sceptical EU allies that the economy was fit to join the euro.

While tributes flowed in from across Europe, the head of the anti-EU Northern League party struck a discordant note, denouncing Ciampi for the crucial role he had played in making sure Italy was part of the euro from its birth in 1999.

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Ciampi spent most of his working life at the Bank of Italy, which he joined in 1946 after the Second World War when he fought with the Italian partisans against Mussolini which made him both loved and hated.

During his 14 years as its head, the Bank was freed from political control, winning leeway to set interest rates and exchange rate policy.

He often said he expected to retire when he left the central bank but in 1993, with Italy mired in the corruption scandals of “Tangentopoli” (Bribesville), Ciampi was persuaded to become prime minister to stave off crisis.

Recently, he had expressed frustration at what he saw as a lack of vision behind the euro’s travails, as well as at Italy’s economic woes which have seen the public debt rise far above the levels he presided over back in the 1990s.

(With inputs from Reuters)

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Topics:  Italy 

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